KEY POINTS:
LONDON - High definition movie DVDs in the Blu-ray format have outsold the rival HD DVD standard in Europe this year, breaking the 1 million barrier and constituting 73 per cent of all HD movie discs sold.
Citing industry sales data, the Blu-ray disc association said in a statement that Blu-ray movie disc sales had topped one million units and when counting Blu-ray gaming discs the total number produced for sale in Europe exceeded 21 million units.
Sony's PlayStation 3 game console includes a Blu-ray Disc drive.
Hollywood and electronics manufacturers are hoping that new high-definition DVDs, with better picture quality and more capacity, will revive the slowing home DVD market.
But the launch of the next-generation DVD players has been complicated by the fact that there are two competing technologies available, Blu-ray and HD DVD.
HD DVD was developed by Toshiba Corp while Sony Corp backs the Blu-ray standard.
Of the high definition movie discs bought by consumers so far this year in Europe, 73 per cent were in the Blu-ray Disc format and 27 per cent were HD DVD, according to sales data provided by Media Control Gfk International.
Blu-ray said the best selling titles were 300, Spider-Man 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
Home Media Research said in October Blu-ray Disc DVD titles had outsold rival HD-DVD titles by almost two-to-one in the first nine months of the year in the United States.
- REUTERS
